December 2006 DVD & Blu-rays

The cocaine cowboys of the '80s are gone, but Miami's Casablanca allure, the undercover cops and the attitudes of Michael Mann's culturally influential television series have been enhanced by time in the feature film version of Miami Vice.

Ricardo Tubbs (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx of "Ray", "Jarhead") is urbane and dead smart. He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy, played by British actress Naomie Harris ("28 Days Later"), as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders.

Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell of "S.W.A.T.", "The New World") ]to the untrained eye, his presentation may seem unorthodox, but procedurally he is sound] is charismatic and flirtatious until-while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group-he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker. Isabella is played by the Chinese actress Gong Li ("Raise the Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha").

The best undercover identity is oneself with the volume turned up and restraint unplugged. The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred, where cop and player become one- especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.

"Miami Vice", as a large-scale feature film, liberates what is adult, dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover...especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don't count...

This time around, Johnny returns as Captain Jack Sparrow and is caught in yet another tangled web of supernatural intrigue. It turns out, Captain Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. If Jack can't figure a crafty way out of this one, he'll be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation. And as if that weren't enough, Captain Jack's problems throw a huge wrench into the wedding plans of the blissful Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who quickly find themselves thrust into Jack's misadventures.

Set amidst the backdrop of a 1930s southern speakeasy, the film follows two characters, Percival (Andre Benjamin), the club's piano player, and Rooster (Antwan Patton), the club's lead performer and manager, through intersecting stories of love and ambition.

When American brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (Eric Stolhanske and Paul Soter) travel to Germany to spread their grandfather's ashes at Oktoberfest, they stumble upon a super-secret, centuries old, underground beer games competition—Beerfest—the secret Olympics of beer drinking. The brothers receive a less than warm welcome from their German cousins, the Von Wolfhausens, who humiliate Todd and Jan, slander their relatives, and finally cast them out of the event. Vowing to return in a year to defend their country and their family's honor, the Wolfhouse boys assemble a ragtag dream team of beer drinkers and gamers: Barry Badrinath (Jay Chandrasekhar), the consummate skills player with a dark past; Phil Krundle (Kevin Hefferman) AKA "Landfill," the one-man chugging machine; and Steve "Fink" Finklestein (Steve Lemme), the lab tech with a Masters degree in All Things Beer. This Magnificent Five train relentlessly, using their hearts, minds and livers to drink faster, smarter and harder than they ever have before. But first they must battle their own demons... as well as a bunch of big, blond, German jerks who want to destroy the team before they can even make it back to Munich. Revenge, like beer, is best served cold.

A remake of the 1961 original that starred Jimmy Stewart, the story is about a group of men stranded in the Sahara Desert after their plane crashes. Desperate, the crew tries to rebuild the plane with any salvagable parts from the wreckage. The update will be setn the story of a group of men stranded in the Sahara Desert following a plane crash. With no way out, they try to build a plane using pieces from the wreckage. The updated version is described by Fox as a reinvention of the original and set in the Mongolian desert.

Imagine our wireless technologies made a connection to a world beyond our own. Imagine that world used that technology as a doorway into ours. Now, imagine the connection we made can't be shut down. When you turn on your cell phone or log on to your e-mail, they'll get in, you¹ll be infected and they¹ll be able to take from you what they don¹t have anymore - life.

Ten years ago best friends Dante Hicks and Randal Graves were New Jersey mini-mall clerks still slacking off together in their early 20s. Now working in the fast-food universe, Dante and Randal have managed to maintain, and even hone, their in-your-face attitudes, agile skill with vulgarities and unbridled love of screwing the customers. But they're also faced with such shocking prospects as marriage, leaving Jersey and finding real careers. Dante and Randal invade the world of Mooby's fast food restaurant, where the slogan is "I'm Eating It." Behind the counter, where the only other employees are an uber-nerd and an entirely too sexy manager, Dante and Randal are free to offend anybody and everybody who so much as orders fries in their inimitably irreverent way. But, even as riotous debates rage between them over such burning matters as George Lucas v. Peter Jackson v. Jesus, change is on the horizon. When Dante announces that he's going to leave Jersey forever and marry Emma Bunting, Randal plots a going-away party so shocking it will draw the police, the fire department and potential protests from PETA, while altering their lives forever.

Priscilla Chase seemed to have everything going for her with one small private exception... She never thought much of sex. When her husband unexpectedly leaves her to regain his manhood she embarks on a wild journey that leads her to satisfaction and love in the most unlikely place.

"How to Eat Fried Worms" tells the story of Billy, an eleven-year-old who inadvertently challenges the town bully on his first day at a new school. To save face and earn the respect of his new classmates, Billy agrees to a bet that will determine his fate at the school-whether or not he can eat ten worms in one day. As the pressure mounts, he must summon heroic strength to keep his five-year-old brother from blabbing, his weak stomach from betraying him, and his big mouth from getting him into more trouble than he's already in.

"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" tells the story of NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) whose "win at all costs" approach has made him a national hero. He and his loyal racing partner and childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (Reilly), are a fearless duo—dubbed "Shake" and "Bake" with the ability to finish so many races in the #1 and #2 positions, with Cal always in second place. When a gay French Formula One driver, Jean Girard (Cohen), challenges "Shake" and "Bake" for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing's top driver.

Based on the best-selling novel, "The Devil Wears Prada" stars two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep as high-powered fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, and Anne Hathaway, as Miranda's new assistant – a small-town girl trying to survive her impossibly demanding new boss.

From Steve Oedekerk and Nickelodeon Movies, creators of "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius", and filmed entirely in CGI comes this hilarious look at what really happens in a barnyard when the farmer's back is turned. "The Barnyard" is a lighthearted tale centering around Otis (voiced by Kevin James), a carefree party cow, who enjoys singing, dancing and playing tricks on humans. Unlike his father Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott), the respected patriarch of the farm, and Miles, the wise old mule (voiced by Danny Glover), Otis is unconcerned about keeping the animals' humanlike talents a secret. But when suddenly put in the position of responsibility, the "udderly" irresponsible cow finds the courage to be a leader.

Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone tells the true story of the heroic survival and rescue of two Port Authority policemen—John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno—who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went in to help people escape. The film also follows their families as they try to find out what happened to them, as well as the rescuers who found them in the debris field and pulled them out. Their story shows how the best in people rose above the tragic events of that day.

Two celebutante cosmetics heiresses (Haylie and Hilary Duff) lose their fortune in a corporate scandal and launch an investigation to expose the culprit.

A young couple who have Asperger's syndrome, a kind of autism, fall in love, but their talents are offset by an inability to relate to one another, which threatens to undermine their relationship.

In "Lady in the Water", a story originally conceived by Shyamalan for his children, a modest building manager named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from danger and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Cleveland and his fellow tenants start to realize that they are also characters in this bedtime story. As Cleveland falls deeper and deeper in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that reside in this fable and are determined to prevent her from returning home.

A sports drama inspired by a true story about a man who had nothing to lose, and pushed to make his dreams come true. When the coach of Vince Papale's beloved hometown football team hosted an unprecedented open tryout, the public consensus was that it was a waste of time--no one good enough to play professional football was going to be found this way. Certainly no one like Papale--a down-on-his-luck, 30-year-old, substitute teacher and part-time bartender who never even played college football. But against these odds, Papale made the team and soon found himself living every fan's fantasy--moving from his cheap seats in the upper deck to standing on the field as a professional football player.

Everyone's had a painful parting of the ways with a romantic partner. We pick up the pieces and move on. But for one New York guy, it's not going to be so easy. When he breaks up with his girlfriend, he discovers his ex is actually the reluctant superhero, G-Girl. A scorned woman, she unleashes her super powers to humiliate and torment him. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" stars Uma Thurman as Jenny Johnson, aka G-Girl and Luke Wilson as Matt Saunders, her beleaguered boyfriend. Anna Faris is Hannah, Matt's co-worker. Rainn Wilson is Vaughn, Matt's best friend and Eddie Izzard is Professor Bedlam, G-Girl's arch nemesis.

Set in the future, "A Scanner Darkly" follows an undercover agent, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), who can change his face and identity. But when he ingests too much of the drug Substance D, his personality splits in two.

Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer) is a normal teenager who lives with his uncle, a nondescript bank manager… or so it seems until his uncle—Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor)—disappears under mysterious circumstances. Alex soon learns that his uncle was a spy for Britain's secret intelligence service MI6, and he is recruited to take on a dangerous mission for the British secret service to infiltrate the organization of a sinister billionaire (Mickey Rourke). Within days he's gone from schoolboy to super spy—but will Alex's first assignment be his last?

The Hoover family treks from Albuquerque to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. On their travels through this bizarre landscape, the Hoovers learn to trust and support each other along the path of life, no matter what the challenge.

Dan (Scott Mechlowicz), a college student and world-champion athlete, is haunted by the feeling that something is missing from his life. A chance encounter with the enigmatic "Socrates" (Nick Nolte) starts Dan on a spiritual odyssey, which throws his "perfect" but shallow life into total disarray. He eventually discovers a surprising and powerful road to enlightenment and the true meaning of winning.

Based on the novel by Charles Bukowski, this drama follows the author's fictional alter-ego, Henry Chinaski, as he moves from town to town looking for work and women in the 1940s.

Tyler Gage is a street smart juvenile delinquent, with a reckless streak that lands him in a world of trouble after he and his friends trash an auditorium at a high school for the performing arts. Sentenced to do community service at the school, he at first wants nothing to do with the students, until he meets a beautiful dancer who's willing to give him a shot. Against all expectations, Ty gets drawn into her world, and discovers his own talent for dance.

"The Wicker Man" follows the story of Sheriff Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) as he investigates the disappearance of a young girl on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Things and people are not as they seem on the island and when Sheriff Malus discovers evidence of pagan rituals his hope of unraveling the girl's disappearance become increasingly uncertain.

Fifty years from now, the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

The film follows a group of men living a night of terror after their lives were changed 15 years earlier by a strange occurrence.

Disillusioned and temporarily rudderless, John Woodson is about to experience a dramatic and profound metamorphosis. Through a mysterious set of coincidences, he finds himself on an adventure to Peru in search of ancient scrolls, known as the Celestine Prophecy. The prophecy and its nine key insights, predict a new awakening that redefines human life and provides a glimpse into a completely spiritual culture on earth. Resistant at first, skeptical and unsure, John finds that each step he takes, each person he encounters leads him to a new awakening. It is only in this letting go that he finds his destiny and comes to understand the meaning that had escaped him when his adventure began.

The president of an elitist sorority at South Beach U presides over a group of unlikely freshman girls who are trying to gain entrance and acceptance into the sorority.

Based on the life of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910), the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Set during the late 1800's to early 1900's, a pivotal period in China's history, when the whole country is shrouded under increasing internal turmoil and the imminent threat of foreign invastion.

"All the King's Men" is a story of human nature, power, corruption, idealism, romance and betrayal. A uniquely American story, it is steeped in the atmosphere of the South during the 1940s and 50s, but its message is still timely and relevant today. "All the King's Men" uses politics as a framework to delve into the more profound dilemmas of human existence—sin, guilt and redemption. In its exploration of the corrupting aspects of power, the story focuses on a once just man who has lost his moral center and will use any means possible to achieve his goals.

A remake of the 2001 Italian film "L'Ultimo bacio", the story concerns a couple who live together and could be undone by questions of whether they are meant to be together.

"The Black Dahlia" weaves a fictionalized tale of obsession, love, corruption, greed and depravity around the true story of the brutal murder of a fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947 and remains unsolved today. Two ex-pugilist cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), are called to investigate the homicide of ambitious silver-screen B-lister Betty Ann Short (Mia Kirshner) A.K.A. "The Black Dahlia"—an attack so grisly that images of the killing were kept from the public.

While Blanchard's growing preoccupation with the sensational murder threatens his marriage to Kay (Scarlett Johansson), his partner Bleichert finds himself attracted to the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott (two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank), the daughter of one of the city's most prominent families—'who just happens to have an unsavory connection to the murder victim.

Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the entire crew from the popular MTV franchise return in the most insane movie of the year, "jackass number two".

One year after a tragic accident, six girlfriends meet in a remote part of the Appalachians for their annual caving trip. Deep below the surface of the earth, disaster strikes when a rock falls and blocks their route back to the surface. The girls soon learn that Juno, the thrill-seeking leader of the expedition, has brought them to an unexplored cave and that as a result no knows where they are to come rescue them. The group splinters and each push on, praying for another exit. But there is something else lurking under the earth - a race of monstrous humanoid creatures that are adapted perfectly to life in the dark. As the friends realize they are now prey, they are forced to unleash their most primal instincts in an all-out war against an unspeakable horror - one that attacks without warning, again and again and again.

Rosario Dawson will play Maya, a college coed who turns into a vengeful seductress after a shocking act of violence.

Looking to avoid the feds, two white-collar criminals flee to the Cayman Islands, but fleeing results in a British citizen committing a crime that has a wide-ranging impact.

Marisa Tomei plays the title character, a woman whose fears for her children are manifested in premonitions of death and disaster.